


Choices

by sunsetdawn20



Category: Prison Break
Genre: F/M, Friendship/Love, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-07
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-11-29 04:29:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11433183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsetdawn20/pseuds/sunsetdawn20
Summary: Fernando’s frown is replaced by a dirty grin. “Is this like“passion”again?” Michael’s lips twitch at the memory and he says: “I guess.”Three scenes posted as chapters this time because they are closely connected. Part of my Road to Panama collection.1. set in S12. set during S2Ep08 Dead Fall3. post S2 AU where they're settled in Panama





	1. Chapter 1

**011\. yesterday**   
“You’ve got that face again,” Fernando says and elbows him in the side. Michael smiles despite himself and leans against the wall of their cell. 

“What face?” 

“You know,” Fernando grins and then tries to imitate Michael’s serious expression. 

Michael laughs and it doesn’t even feel forced. Fernando puts a warm hand on his shoulder and squeezes lightly, looking pleased with himself. Michael doesn’t know when it became Fernando’s job to take care of him while he takes care of their escape. 

He watches Fernando climb on his bed and he says: 

“Sucre…”

Fernando looks at him and Michael realizes he’s not sure what he was about to say. So he settles on something that’s been on his mind for a long time. 

“Can I give you some advice?” 

“Advice?”

“About Maricruz…”

Fernando’s frown is replaced by a dirty grin. “Is this like _“passion”_ again?” 

Michael’s lips twitch at the memory and he says: “I guess.”

“Alright. Go on then.” 

“When you get out to her – don’t try to convince her.”

“What?” 

“Tell her how you feel but don’t… don’t try to change her mind. It’s her own life. She can make her own choices.”

Fernando is watching him with a frown. “What if she makes the wrong one?” 

“Then you accept it,” Michael shrugs. 

Fernando contemplates this for a few moments, then a smile breaks out on his entire face and he throws a pillow at Michael. 

“You’re full of shit, Papi.”


	2. Chapter 2

**012\. today**   
_Please._

That one word fills up Michael’s mind. For more months than he can count his mind was a junkyard of details and failsafes – combinations only he could see. Now there’s nothing. Just that one word. 

_Please._

“They say people come into your life for a reason. Maybe my reason was to help you get out of Fox River, you know. Help you save your brother.” 

 

He’s holding Fernando’s head above the water and he can barely hear Fernando’s words above his own heartbeat. 

“No.” 

_Please._

“It’s ok, Papi. Let me go.” 

_Please. No._

\--

Fernando says he needs to make a call and Michael smiles. There’s relief in every corner of his body, burning even in his fingertips as he squeezes Fernando’s shoulder because he can. Because Fernando is still there and stupidly guilty about that bike and Michael loves him for that. 

_You can come with me and Linc to Panama_ , he said in the river. And other things he can’t remember, and there was so much more he wanted to say and couldn’t because he was trying to think and because saying them would have meant goodbye. But now he thinks maybe one day he might. With how things are… 

For months all his bedtime stories had Maricruz in them. Fernando doesn’t know how to not talk about her and Michael let him, because he wanted that for him. 

But if she made her choice… 

The thought is like a constant pressure in Michael’s head as he’s talking to the handler about the car. It’s making him dizzy, to think that now he might be allowed to want. 

When Fernando comes back he’s grinning and for a stupid second Michael thinks it’s about the thought of Panama and staying together. He wants to kick himself afterwards, because how could that grin be for anyone but Maricruz? 

Michael smiles back – doesn’t quite know what else to do. 

“What about Panama, we said we were gonna…”

“Some other time,” Michael says quickly, doesn’t want to think about all the things he pictured about Panama in the past hour. All he let himself hope for – for the first time. “Panama’s not going anywhere.” 

For a moment Michael lets himself hate the vague remnants of hope in his voice and then he switches to autopilot. He hands Fernando the note, just in case, he lets himself be hugged, but doesn’t put any real feeling into returning it. He smiles too. And he buys Fernando a car. 

In a way he’s almost glad to watch his friend drive away – he needs a moment to breathe.


	3. Chapter 3

**013\. tomorrow**   
“Hey, Papi?” 

Michael takes his eyes off the infinitely blue and white horizon and looks at his friend. It’s early afternoon and miraculously the baby is asleep, so Fernando gets to just rest on the beach with him. It’s nice, it’s quiet, it’s almost enough. 

“Hm?” Michael asks. His lips curl a little – not quite a smile, but close enough. They got Panama after all, maybe not quite how Michael once pictured it for a sweet second but they’re here together and Michael counts his blessings. 

“Can I ask you something?” 

There’s uncharacteristic hesitation in Fernando’s voice, so Michael shifts in his sun chair so he can fully focus on his friend. 

“Sure.”

Fernando glances at him briefly, then seems to settle on watching the waves instead. “You know how you once said… you know, that I should let Maricruz make her own choice and all that…”

“Yeah?” Michael says, trying to keep his apprehension out of his voice. He probably doesn’t manage it, because Fernando does look him in the eye now. 

“That day after the river… were you doing that to me?”

Michael keeps his face carefully neutral for a moment, then he forces a small smile in the corner of his lips. 

“I wasn’t going to _drag_ you to Panama,” he says and tries a little laugh, just in case. But Fernando shakes his head and says:

“That’s not what I‘m…” he sighs, hesitates. For a moment Michael hopes he won’t say more about this, but then Fernando does, because in some ways, in ways that count, he’s infinitely braver that Michael will ever be. “Were you letting me choose between her and you?”

Michael knows he could lie, but somehow that doesn’t feel like an option. “Yes.”

Fernando nods. There’s a small frown on his face and Michael feels like he’s creeping around Fox River again, trying to remain undetected – there was a hint of relief, being outside of his cell, but also infinite apprehension. He wouldn’t have expected this to feel the same. 

“You forgot one thing, Michael,” Fernando says. 

It hits him, the use of his name just there. Not that Fernando doesn’t do that from time to time, but Michael always knows what that means. Right now he has no idea and his mind unhelpfully makes comparisons with every uncertain look, every awkward turn of phrase from Lincoln since he found out about Michael’s sexuality all those years ago. 

“What’s that, Sucre?” Autopilot. He’s absently tracing with his finger the edge of his tattoo around his left wrist. 

“The part where you first tell me how you feel.” 

Michael glances up and he finds Fernando looking at him. Not confused, not angry, not uncomfortable, just waiting. 

“Well now you know,” Michael says. 

Fernando nods. “Now I know.”


End file.
